Reading the road and using your vision

Agree with the other comments,thought provoking and well put together.

Everybody can improve their riding/driving.
 
Thanks Giles. Excellent explanations and well written.

I leaned the 'looking without looking' techniqe to build peripheral vision when I was doing lots of martial arts, including Japanese sword work. So useful when riding.
 
Thanks Giles. Excellent explanations and well written.

I leaned the 'looking without looking' techniqe to build peripheral vision when I was doing lots of martial arts, including Japanese sword work. So useful when riding.

FFS where does Japanese sword work come in useful while riding your 'bike :augie
:beerjug:
 
very thought provoking :thumb2
our local council wants to reduce the ammount of signage as they say its to distracting:mmmm that and turning the street lights off on the faster country roads
 
Thanks

Thanks Giles :thumb

Well put together and very useful. It's always useful to go over stuff like this as the more I read it the better chance of some of it sticking :D

Looking forward to the next chapter
 
An excellent article, Giles.

Many thanks for taking the time to create and post it. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then your snaps (and the clear explanations in between) are worth a million.
 
OK Blokes, thanks. We'll do more in a few weeks ..... :thumb
 
Very good, loads of effort:thumb

I have a few quick things on my head while I ride.

- The mentally (tighter) a road becomes the more you really turn up your concentration. Lots of things starting to happen, lots of things can happen.

- As an experienced biker ALWAYS follow your instincts as well as the info as they will usually make you back off.

- As an experienced biker you should be able to safely, smoothly and relatively quickly ride roads that don't have signs or have very few. Some guys here such as the Scottish bikers will face many roads with very scant signage.

- Behind every tractor/ big truck is a twat about to do a blind overtake:D

I guess we all have our few that stick out:thumb2
 
Very informative Giles, really enjoyed reading that......thanks for the pointers :thumb2

Could you do one on how to find the clitoris? :D:D
 
The biggest problem is being an inexperienced biker, we can all learn more and improve and once over the basics look to advanced roadcraft courses and bike handling courses such as CSS to teach us far more.

As a newbie you have no experience to call upon so rely to some degree on luck, some newbies push this (in my day it was lads in jeans on RD125's with far more bravado than skill) others don't and try to be sensible, but this is not the same as experience.

To begin with you have an empty bag of experience and a partially full bag of luck (some guys seem to have a better luck bag than others for no apparent reason, other than luck I guess)

You need to fill up the bag of experience before you empty the bag of luck.

And regardless of experience never go quicker than your Gaurdian Angel can fly:thumb
 
A response from another forum to a copy of Gile's piece made quite a good point:

If we can't see all of the road ahead there is a danger that our brains fill in the missing parts with what we think 'should' be there.

One good example of this is a section of track at the Nurburgring where most first timers get caught out, Adenauer Forst.

On the approach to Adenauer Forst the track looks like it goes to the right. One looks further up the track and it appears to continue to the right but it doesn't, there is a hidden very sharp left right in between what you can't actually see, causing so many drivers/riders to go into this section way too fast.

The driver's imagination has filled in the 'missing' gap of track that cannot be seen with a continuation of the curve to the right and Bingo! You get into trouble.

This video film of Adenauer Forst from the 70's shows how many first timers get caught out..... and have some bloody lucky escapes.... that might not be available closer to home.

<embed id=VideoPlayback src=http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=640695539059738855&hl=en&fs=true style=width:400px;height:326px allowFullScreen=true allowScriptAccess=always type=application/x-shockwave-flash> </embed>
 
in my day it was lads in jeans on RD125's with far more bravado than skill

Ooh that sounds a bit like me.........except I was brill with the skill :thumb

White trainers and paddock jacket too, essential for going quick :D

The biggest issue with riders is the constant desire to ride faster than it is safe to do so. Just because you can take a corner at 80, doesn't mean you should.
I've been out on many a fast ride that has had me wincing at the speed that some people will go round bends. They have been good, trained and talented riders, but their sense of imortality often leads them to travel 5-10% quicker than is actually safe.
Personally I prefer to enjoy the ride more now and leave the racing to those who will apparently live forever.
 
Cornering

Looking at Wappings post reminded me

Slow in / fast out.

Fast in / ambulance out. :blast


:D
 
This video film of Adenauer Forst from the 70's shows how many first timers get caught out..... and have some bloody lucky escapes.... that might not be available closer to home.

<embed id=VideoPlayback src=http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=640695539059738855&hl=en&fs=true style=width:400px;height:326px allowFullScreen=true allowScriptAccess=always type=application/x-shockwave-flash> </embed>

:topic What an excellent memorial to rear engines and swing axles:D The peeps in the convertable Beetle probably owe their lives to the driver. He got them into the cack but at least he got them back out of it too!
 
A response from another forum to a copy of Gile's piece made quite a good point:

If we can't see all of the road ahead there is a danger that our brains fill in the missing parts with what we think 'should' be there.

One good example of this is a section of track at the Nurburgring where most first timers get caught out, Adenauer Forst.

On the approach to Adenauer Forst the track looks like it goes to the right. One looks further up the track and it appears to continue to the right but it doesn't, there is a hidden very sharp left right in between what you can't actually see, causing so many drivers/riders to go into this section way too fast.

The driver's imagination has filled in the 'missing' gap of track that cannot be seen with a continuation of the curve to the right and Bingo! You get into trouble.

This video film of Adenauer Forst from the 70's shows how many first timers get caught out..... and have some bloody lucky escapes.... that might not be available closer to home.

<embed id=VideoPlayback src=http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=640695539059738855&hl=en&fs=true style=width:400px;height:326px allowFullScreen=true allowScriptAccess=always type=application/x-shockwave-flash> </embed>

I guess you didn't need a TV if you lived near here. "Just popping out for a fag and to watch a few crashes dear".

There will be loads of misleading roads in our local patches. There are even some crackers on new roads where the designers should have known better.

The classic "In slow, out fast" is many of our older motorway on/off slips which tighten up.

We should get some pics up. As it's a Friday night there should be a couple of crash examples from Shetland by the morning:augie
 
Brilliant!

Cringed when the soft top Beetle came round, thank God that never went over :thumb2
 
FFS where does Japanese sword work come in useful while riding your 'bike :augie
:beerjug:

Sounds odd ut very applicable.

It's a first class example of object fixation. When you've got a bokken (oak sword) winging it's way at your head at 60mph, the last thing you need to do is look at it. But guess what the natural thing is to do? Looking at and getting fixed on your opponent's eyes, hands, sword tip or anything else removes your ability to see properly.

Happens to the best too. I once decked a very senior teacher on a course because he lost concentration.

You get trained to look without looking at anything particular, relying on peripheral vision. The timings are about the same as fast road riding.
 


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